Thank you Lightwood Games for sending us this title to review!

In 2019 we reviewed this title as one of our final Vita reviews for that platform. This wasn’t our first time playing this series. We have reviewed the Wii U and Switch versions of Word Puzzles by POWGI. Mixups was one of the many mini-games in that collection. It’s now available on the Xbox platform as a standalone title with six hundred themed puzzles to solve. PlayStation 4 users have been able to play this game as a cross-buy title since its 2019 release.

There are one hundred and twenty themes with roughly six puzzles in each one. You can resume at any time without having to restart from the first puzzle. However, the individual puzzles cannot be resumed. This is a great pick up and play game if you have a few minutes to kill. Just make sure that you have access to the Internet and a search engine.

If you’re new to the game, the goal is simple. You have to figure out the three themed words by using the available letters only once. When a word is solved, the letters are no longer available for the remaining words. If you need a hint you can press the left and right shoulder buttons and the first letter of the word(s) will be revealed. If there are multiple words in a phrase you’ll only get assistance with the first one. Even with a hint provided, I was not able to solve many of these and relied on Internet search engine results for guidance.

The restricted themed puzzles like US States are easier to solve than boy's names. There are only fifty states to work with and when you use a hint for the first letter that narrows things down significantly. However, with boy's names there’s at least fifty names for each letter of the alphabet!

Some words were completely foreign to me like “poppet” in terms of endearment. In nearly twenty-five years of marriage, we’ve never used that word. While cute, I also haven’t seen degus in the pet stores near me. Guinea pigs and hamsters are and I was able to solve those in the pet-themed group.

There are thirty-two Xbox achievements available and I unlocked Sir Cumference for solving all of the shapes puzzles. The trophy names are witty and the dog mascot usually says something goofy after completing each puzzle.

The visuals are crisp and this game runs smoothly on the powerful Xbox Series X. The background music is peppy, but a little repetitive at times.

Morally, this game is clean and suitable for people of all ages to play. With that said, many of these puzzles threw me for a loop so I can imagine it being quite challenging for younger kids.

If you like word scramble puzzles, Mixups by POWGI is worth checking out. The asking price of $7.99 is reasonable. There are plenty of puzzles to keep you scratching your head for hours.